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Q&A
Healthy NYC: specific health areas and potential budget impacts
0:53:42
ยท
4 min
Council Member Lynn Schulman and Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse discuss potential federal funding cuts, their impact on Healthy NYC goals, and specific health areas of concern.
- DOHMH is monitoring the potential impact of federal funding decisions on Healthy NYC goals
- Cardiovascular and diabetes-related mortality is now the leading cause of death in New York City
- Only about $30 million of the agency budget is dedicated to chronic disease
- There's an increase in public health threats, including measles cases (14 out of 15 state cases were in NYC in 2024)
- DOHMH is in ongoing conversations with OMB about achieving Healthy NYC goals
- Discussions with state partners have occurred, but fewer conversations at the federal level about Healthy NYC
Lynn Schulman
0:53:42
As you're doing the analysis, presuming that at some point there are federal cuts, will you be able to adjust to show that that was because that whatever data you're getting was based on something else that happened, some outside factor?
Michelle Morse
0:54:04
We do have a number of ways that we're doing surveillance to monitor the impact of some of the federal decisions and so we are doing that work.
0:54:15
I think your question is kind of getting at with a $600,000,000 federal funding package and portfolio that includes CDC, HRSA, HUD, and many other federal agencies, ACF, etcetera, what might the impacts of those potential cuts be on our Healthy NYC And we would love to continue to work with counsel to make sure that we can still make progress on our Healthy NYC goals even if there are changes in federal funding.
0:54:46
But certainly any cuts to our federal funding would put a number of goals at risk including our Healthy NYC goals.
0:54:54
And I'll just give one example.
0:54:55
Chronic disease specifically was gonna say.
0:54:57
Cardiovascular mortality and diabetes related mortality is the number one killer of New Yorkers now that COVID is no longer number one.
0:55:04
And so this goes back to the number one killer that we had pre COVID.
0:55:08
So we have a lot of work to do in that realm.
0:55:11
Right now only about $30,000,000 of our total agency budget is dedicated to chronic disease.
Lynn Schulman
0:55:17
And plus we have not here particularly, but an increase in measles across the country and other chronic diseases that we thought were kind of put to bed.
0:55:28
So now we've been making a comeback.
0:55:30
And then hopefully and then we have the bird flu which we'll talk about it in as we as we do the questions.
0:55:37
But
Michelle Morse
0:55:38
We do have a number of public health threats that are very much of concern.
0:55:42
And I would say that 2025, what those threats look like is quite different than 2019 when the article six match rate was cut.
0:55:50
So again I think it makes the case even clearer how important it is for Article six match to be restored.
0:55:59
And the most clear example of that is how New York City again as a global city is hit first and hardest whenever it comes to a public health threat.
0:56:09
In 2024 there were fifteen cases of measles in the whole state of New York and fourteen of those cases were in New York City.
0:56:16
So we do have have much work to do to keep New Yorkers safe.
Lynn Schulman
0:56:20
Are there any budget asks from DOHMH to OMB to improve Healthy NYC's effectiveness?
Michelle Morse
0:56:27
We are continuing to have conversations with OMB about making sure that we can achieve our Healthy NYC goals.
0:56:34
I would also say that as is elevated in our chronic disease report, it was developed with 22 sister agencies.
0:56:41
So we do see our chronic disease work as something that's collaborative and across city government and have been in conversation with OMB about those goals.
0:56:50
We do see some great opportunities to continue current programs, to focus more on diabetes, to focus on neighborhood stress free zones, and many other initiatives in our chronic disease portfolio to make sure that we do achieve our healthy NYC goals and stay on track.
Lynn Schulman
0:57:08
I'm gonna ask you at some point I'm not gonna push you too much today but I am gonna ask you to let us know if there are ways that we can help to supplement what you need in this budget.
Corinne Schiff
0:57:20
Thank you
Linda Lee
0:57:21
for your partner.
Lynn Schulman
0:57:22
Have there been discussions with our state or federal partners regarding Healthy NYC?
Michelle Morse
0:57:27
Thank you for that question.
0:57:28
I do speak with Commissioner McDonald quite We did share information with him and his team about Healthy NYC.
0:57:36
So that has been a great and productive partnership.
0:57:38
He also had a chance to take a look at our chronic disease report and found it to be quite on target.
0:57:45
And at the federal level we have not had as many conversations about Healthy NYC.